Dishwasher Leak Repair and Refinishing, Matthews Farm

The Challenge

Dishwasher leaks are one of the most damaging things that can happen to a hardwood floor because they happen slowly and out of sight. By the time the floor shows signs of damage, the subfloor underneath has typically been saturated for months or longer. Here the rot had worked through the hardwood and into the plywood below. The damaged section had to come out completely before any repair could begin. The bigger challenge was the finish: the existing red oak throughout the rest of the kitchen had aged and patinated in a way that a standard stain would not match. The homeowners also wanted a color and sheen that was unlike anything a standard finish catalog would produce.

What We Did

We tore out the damaged hardwood and the rotted plywood below it, rebuilt the subfloor section, and laced in new red oak using full glue and nail. On a repair like this, glue is not optional. It locks out any movement between new and old wood that would eventually show as a visible seam or squeak. Once the new boards were down and cured, we sanded the entire kitchen floor as one surface, blending old and new. The finish is a custom blend of hardwax oil products, applied by hand to achieve an olive brown color that does not exist off the shelf. Water popping before finish opened the grain across both old and new boards evenly. The result is a velvet matte surface with a color that reads warm and earthy. You cannot identify where the repair starts.